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City Canteen: An artisanal café-deli-kitchen fit for a foodie

Many small businesses like to have lots on the go — multiple revenue streams ensure healthy profits. But new entrepreneurs often struggle with keeping all those balls in the air.

But Mark Ezrin, who worked as the executive chef of a busy hotel for several years, has got this. His new venture City Canteen, on Bloor St. W. near Runnymede Rd., includes lots of different offerings, but he’s got them well under control.

The 1,500-square-foot space is part coffee and sandwich shop. Grab a drink and a fresh sandwich for $8 or $9, or a serving of Ezrin’s specialty: to-die-for dark chocolate and berry bread pudding ($4 for a small and $6 for a medium) that’s made with croissants and crème brûlée filling.

But it’s also a food store, with a deli counter of gourmet cheese and in-house cured meats, breads brought in daily, a wall of bottled items such as olive oil and hot sauces, and a fridge and freezer of soups, curries and savoury pies.

Not everything is food: tea towels, bread bags and knives are also for sale. Almost everything is either made in-house or sourced from small-batch makers from Canada.

Then walk a few steps, pass an open industrial kitchen and right to the back where Ezrin, 44, has set up a cooking studio — it’s actually modelled on his own at home and designed by Dialogue 38 and Lindy Feijo Design — where the store holds cooking demonstrations and classes.

Ezrin says he’s not sure how to label his storefront. He sees it as an urban farmers’ market and an interactive space and culinary community hub. “It’s a cross between a French boulangerie and a Halifax kitchen party,” he says.

Chef school grad Ezrin (he later got his Certified Chef de Cuisine and also trained as a sommelier) worked in hotels for much of his early career, but became dismayed at their reliance on prepared items. As executive chef of the Renaissance Toronto Downtown Hotel in the Rogers Centre, a job he held for seven years, he encouraged more cooking from scratch.

At one point, he ran a restaurant in the hotel that focused on local cuisine — but that was before it was in fashion, and management pushed for a change in direction.

While he loved his job, the stress of dealing with the paperwork and bureaucracy of a large hotel operation got to him after a while. He developed high blood pressure. “My doctor told me to quit or I’d die,” he says.

Meanwhile, spending so much time at a desk had him feeling out of touch with his passion — food. He and his family often hunted down artisanal brands at the One of a Kind Show & Sale, and in small towns and farmers’ markets.

A stint at the non-profit LOFT Kitchen, which is part of the Christie Ossington Neighbourhood Centre, got Ezrin back cooking and working with youth — which he loved — but further inspired him to start his own place, and run it his way.

A hard search in his own neighbourhood (he’s lived in Bloor West Village for 17 years) yielded this place in the heart of a very foodie neighbourhood. He opened in early December.

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Ezrin brought in not just the artisanal products he loved, but offered his kitchen to food entrepreneurs, so they could make their wares, and his cooking studio for them to show off pasta and charcuterie-making skills to customers.

Many of these demonstrations are free, but Ezrin also runs one-night classes where a chef digs deeper and teaches complex skills.

He’s also begun to book parties. A recent birthday had a family make lobster ravioli and eat it together. He’d like to do more custom events where customers can get in the kitchen to create, eat and drink — Ezrin hopes to get his liquor licence soon.

What he’d like to create, really, is a “foodie heaven.”

Correction – January 12, 2017: This article was edited from a previous version that mistakenly said the cooking studio located in Canteen was designed by Mark Ezrin’s wife Mateja.

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